budget

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Ruling parties to accelerate budget cuts

The Koizumi Cabinet is planning to approve as early as July 7 a basic economic and budgetary plan to be implemented in the next five years in order to allow the next cabinet to inherit Koizumi policies.

The ruling Liberal Democratic and Komei parties have worked out a guideline for spending cuts mainly for social services to be included in the basic plan with the aim of imposing heavier burdens on the public.

The guideline is nothing more than the manipulation of figures to have the budgetary balance of the national and local governments fall in the black by fiscal 2011, in disregard of the living conditions of the public. The guideline demands that within five years expenditures be reduced by 11.4 trillion yen to 14.3 trillion yen and that the remaining sum of 2-5 trillion yen be made up for by increasing tax revenues.

During the past five years, the Koizumi government has forced the public to pay an additional 13 trillion yen as a result of a series of adverse reforms of welfare services and tax increases. New burdens arising from cutting expenditures will be further shifted onto the public.

On June 22 at the government Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy meeting, Koizumi baldly stated, "The more the government expenditure is cut, the more the public will say 'no.' The government expenditure must be thoroughly cut until the public comes to accept tax increases in order for the government to take necessary measures."

The government intends to use this "expenditure cut" campaign to prepare the public to accept tax increases, including the heavier consumption tax. Some LDP tax research council members have been openly advocating a 10 percent consumption tax rate increase.

Both the government and ruling parties are completely ignoring their responsibilities for putting Japan's finances deep in debt by having made enormous waste of funds in public works projects and military buildup projects as well as by drastically cutting tax rates for major companies and the wealthy.

They are simply shifting the burden of their misgovernment onto the public in the name of "reform" -- this is what the Koizumi "reform" is all about.
- Akahata, July 3, 2006